Sports Update » Southwest Conferencehttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate
Blogging special sports events and storiesTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:30:26 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3Former UH basketball great Birdsong to join SWC Hall of Famehttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/07/former-uh-basketball-great-birdsong-to-join-swc-hall-of-fame/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/07/former-uh-basketball-great-birdsong-to-join-swc-hall-of-fame/#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 02:50:19 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/?p=41877University of Houston basketball legend Otis Birdsong on Wednesday was named one of the newest members for induction into the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.

Birdsong played for Hall of Fame coach Guy V. Lewis from 1973-77, becoming the first freshman starter in school history and earning recognition as the SWC Player of the Decade in the 70s.

He ranks second in school history with more than 2,800 points.

As a junior, Birdsong led the SWC and ranked eighth nationally with 26.1 points per game. The following year as a senior, Birdsong was honored as the SWC Player of the Year after finishing fourth nationally with an average 30.3 points per game.

Bill Wyman, the former All-America center at the University of Texas who died last week at age 61, was more inclined in his later years to talk about hunting and fishing trips and family reunions than his days as the anchor of Darrell Royal’s final Southwest Conference championship teams.

The camera, however, doesn’t lie. And upon further review, it shows that Bill Wyman was and remains one of the standout names in the history of Texas football, said his younger brother, Jim, who followed his brother’s footsteps at Spring Branch High School and with the Royal-era Longhorns.

“He was truly … he was just awesome,” Jim Wyman said. “I’ve watched a lot of his old game films lately. It was a different era of football back then – three yards and a cloud of dust – but he was just awesome. He really was.”

Wyman, who lived in Bandera for several years and most recently lived on South Padre Island, died Wednesday, family members said. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease since about 1995; family members did not speculate regarding whether the disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, could have been related to his playing days.

Wyman was one of 12 children – four boys and eight girls – and one of three boys who went on to play college football. He played for Royal’s final three Cotton Bowl teams in 1971-73, clearing the way for Texas’ record-setting wishbone fullback Roosevelt Leaks in 1972-73, and was twice all-conference and consensus All-America in 1973, when he was a finalist for the Lombardi Trophy.

A member of Southwest Conference and Cotton Bowl all-decade teams for the 1970s, he was drafted by the Jets in 1974 but did not play in the NFL.

Jim Wyman said his brother “was very proud of what happened at Texas, but it wasn’t something that he would have a big conversation with you about unless you brought it up. He loved going to the games but didn’t talk a lot about his career.”

Wyman worked after football in the construction business in South Texas before he became ill in the mid-1990s. Family members said he enjoyed fishing and hunting trips and the Wyman family’s well-populated reunions.

With such a large family, Jim Wyman said, “it was hell growing up, but it makes for a hell of a party now with all the husbands and wives and kids and grandkids.”

Survivors include his wife, Lynda; three children, three brothers, eight sisters and several grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home, 6900 Lawndale.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2013/06/bill-wyman-61-all-america-center-for-darrell-royals-swc-champions/feed/0Remembering Bill Clements and the SMU death penaltyhttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/05/remembering-bill-clements-and-the-smu-death-penalty/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/05/remembering-bill-clements-and-the-smu-death-penalty/#commentsMon, 30 May 2011 15:09:43 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsmedia/?p=541I generally agree with the premise that it’s best not to speak ill of the dead. However, in the wake of elements that were not included in the obituary of former Gov. Bill Clements that appeared in the Chronicle on Monday, I feel compelled to repeat a couple of facts that already are in the public record. (UPDATE: Details on the SMU case were included in the story that was submitted but were cut for space, I am told.)

Accordingly, here are a couple of stories that I wrote in 1987, while working for United Press International in Dallas, in the wake of the SMU pay-for-play football scandal, which resulted in the university receiving the NCAA’s death penalty that destroyed SMU football for the better part of a quarter-century and contributed to the demise of the Southwest Conference.

No story about Bill Clements, in my humble opinion, is complete without at least a reference to these matters.

• • •

United Press International

June 19, 1987, Friday, AM cycle

BYLINE: By DAVID BARRON

SECTION: Sports News

LENGTH: 833 words

DATELINE: DALLAS

Texas Gov. Bill Clements knew as early as 1983 of improper payments to SMU football players and was solely responsible for a 1985 decision to continue the pay-for-play scheme, according to a report on the SMU scandal released Friday.

The report, compiled by four United Methodist Church bishops, said Clements overruled two top-ranking SMU officials in 1985 and ordered Athletic Director Bob Hitch to continue the payments — less than three months after SMU went on NCAA probation for such infractions.

”Clements asked him (Hitch) whether the payments could be continued and, when Hitch responded that they could, Hitch recalled Clements telling him specifically and unambiguously, ‘Then do it,”’ according to the report.

The 1985 incident marked the second time Clements clashed with SMU President Donald Shields over the payment scheme, the bishops said.

On Nov. 11, 1983, the day Clements began a three-year term as chairman of the SMU Board of Governors, Shields complained about the payments and was told by Clements ”to calm down and not be so self-righteous,” the report said.

Clements told Shields ”to stay out of it” and ”go run the university,” the report said.

The bishops also said that within a month of Clements’ meeting with the NCAA Infractions Committee in April 1985 — when he told members SMU ”will not tolerate any misbehavior whatsoever in the future” — he had several meetings with boosters Sherwood Blount, George Owen and William Stevens. In the meetings, they agreed monetary commitments to players already at SMU would be honored.

In Austin, Clements declined comment on the bishops’ report.

”We have no comment,” said Reggie Bashur, Clements’ press secretary.

The 1983 and 1985 incidents were centerpieces of a 48-page litany of improper payments, power plays and coverups at SMU since Clements first became chairman of its Board of Governors in 1967.

Continuation of payments after August 1985 resulted in an unprecedented one-year ban on SMU football by the NCAA. SMU later canceled its 1988 football season as well.

Although Clements figures prominently in the report, the four church bishops said all SMU trustees in some way shared responsibility for the SMU payment scandal.

Bishop Ben Oliphint of Houston said that prior to Clements’ 1985 decision, six SMU officials knew of the improper payments — Robert Stewart III, Edwin Cox Sr., Paul Corley, former Dallas Mayor Robert Folsom, Clements and Shields, who resigned late last year as SMU’s president.

Friday’s report contained several recommendations to resolve the SMU athletic scandal, including an investigation of all other SMU athletic programs, a policy allowing open meetings of SMU trustees and the appointment of a vice president for church relations to represent the church’s interests in the SMU administration.

”SMU is not named Southern University, but Southern Methodist University,” said Bishop Louis W. Schowengerdt of Albuquerque, N.M., chairman of the committee.

”At SMU, the basic principles of Christian faith should guide the board of governors to aim for a higher level of actions than at a state university. ‘Everyone is doing it’ can never be an excuse for SMU.”

The bishops’ committee — Schowengerdt, W.P. Handy Jr. of Missouri, J. Woodrow Hearn of Nebraska and Oliphint — interviewed 62 witnesses during its three-month investigation of the SMU football imbroglio. Eleven key witnesses refused to cooperate, including Stewart, former SMU football coaches Bobby Collins and Ron Meyer, and SMU boosters Sherwood Blount and George Owen.

A fifth member, Bishop Walter Underwood of Baton Rouge, La., died in mid-April during the committee’s investigation.

Other findings by the committee included:

-Hitch, Collins and former assistant athletic director Henry Lee Parker will be paid $863,013 as part of their contracts with SMU. All three left the university in the wake of the football scandal.

-SMU officials William Hutchinson, Cox and Corley began a ”concerted effort” to cover up Clements’ involvement on the payment scandals beginning in November 1986. Interim SMU President William Stallcup also participated in the effort.

-Shields knew of improprieties within the SMU football program within weeks of his arrival at the university in 1980 but declined to take action.

-Hitch and Collins were aware of the payments to SMU players at least by 1982.

-Hitch told NCAA investigators in December 1986 about the improper payment scam at SMU as part of an agreement under which he would remain anonymous and would not seek to interview other persons. ”In sum, this interview with Hitch would be the investigation,” the bishops said.

-Blount in September 1986 threatened ”to take matters into his own hands” if Shields’ public criticisms of Blount did not stop. Clements assured Blount during an Oct. 20, 1986 meeting that Shields would be fired as president and instructed Shields later to stop making public comments about Blount.

• • •

United Press International

June 20, 1987, Saturday, AM cycle

Methodist bishop on SMU: ‘We have sinned’

BYLINE: By DAVID BARRON

SECTION: Sports News

LENGTH: 742 words

DATELINE: DALLAS

Dallas oilman Ray Hunt, who was elected Friday as the new Southern Methodist University board chairman, said it ”hurt” to see a seven-year pattern of football cheating outlined in a report prepared by a group of Methodist bishops.

But Hunt said the blunt nature of report — which names Texas Gov. Bill Clements as the central figure in a pay-for-play football scandal at SMU — marks the beginning of a new era for SMU.

”A lot of the facts contained in the report had appeared before, but never

together in one cohesive package,” Hunt said. ”It hurt to see it.”

”We admit that we have sinned,” said Methodist Bishop Louis W. Schowengerdt of Albuquerque, N.M., chairman of the bishops’ committee.

But Hunt said there is ”no sentiment (among SMU officials) that ‘Gosh, I wish we had never started this ball rolling.”

”I doubt there is another university in the country that would take the steps SMU has,” he said. ”From now on, we will be certain that all our (athletic) programs are completely clean.”

Even Clements said late Friday night that the report, which dates SMU’s football woes back to a 1981 probation for recruiting violations, was a good one.

”The report will clear the air and put SMU in new phase and give it new plateau to move forward, which is what it should do,” he told reporters as he left the state Capitol in Austin. ”The report is behind us, and I’m glad we made it.”

But Clements denied that the report implied he was the major force behind the payments.

”Oh, I don’t believe it says that. I haven’t read the report, but I’m just sure the nuance and the inflection that you’re putting on the report — I’m sure it doesn’t say that,” Clements said.

The four bishops who prepared the report — Schowengerdt, Ben Oliphint of Houston, W.T. Handy Jr. of St. Louis and J. Woodrow Hearn of Lincoln, Neb. — refused to criticize SMU officials at a Friday afternoon news conference.

”They (SMU officials who condoned payments to players) thought at the time that what they were doing was in the best interests of SMU,” Handy said.

The committee said in its report that Clements knew as early as 1983 that SMU players were being paid to play. When university president L. Donald Shields objected, Clements told him ”not to be so self-righteous,” the report added.

Because of improper payments, SMU suffered the stiffest penalty ever handed a college football program. The NCAA in February banned SMU from fielding a team in 1987, and university officials later canceled the 1988 season.

The bishops said that within a month of Clements’ meeting with the NCAA Infractions Committee in April 1985, when he said SMU ”will not tolerate any misbehavior whatsoever in the future,” he met with renegade boosters Sherwood Blount, George Owen and William Stevens to discuss ”winding down” payments to players already at SMU.

In August 1985, Clements went against the wishes of Shields and university Trustee Edwin Cox Sr. and ordered athletic director Bob Hitch to continue the payments — less than three months after SMU went on NCAA probation.

The report said at least six SMU officials knew of the improper payments — Shields and board of governors members Robert Stewart III, Cox, Paul Corley, former Dallas Mayor Robert Folsom and Clements. Shields resigned late last year as SMU’s president.

The report also cited a cover-up by SMU officials to prevent Clements’ involvement in the payoffs scandal from leaking in 1986, when Clements was running for governor.

As part of the cover-up, it said, Hitch agreed to act as SMU’s ”fall guy,” telling NCAA investigators in December 1986 about the improper payment scam at SMU as part of an agreement under which he would remain anonymous and the NCAA would not seek to interview other persons.

The bishops focused on Clements and several other powerful members of the board of governors but said even non-involved members ”were content to win football games, to trust the leadership and look the other way.”

Another major disclosure was the contract settlements paid to Hitch, former football coach Bobby Collins and former assistant athletic director Henry Lee Parker, who left SMU last year in the midst of the payoffs scandal.

The three will receive a combined $863,013 from SMU, the bishops said. Collins will be paid $556,272 through Dec. 31, 1990; Hitch $246,442 through May 31, 1989; and Parker $60,299 through May 31, 1988.